The cap hit - $6 million per season - matches those of Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. By signing those two players to $6 million/year contracts, the Oilers established a benchmark for both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and, presumably, Nail Yakupov one year from now.

Some will doubtless question the dollars involved here - particularly with Nugent-Hopkins coming off a difficult half-season - but the fact is that the 2011 first overall pick has scored at a level in the NHL that can make the Oilers feel very comfortable with his long-term upside:

Like Tyler Dellow, I tend to think that a bridge contract was never a likely outcome here. Not only that, but a bridge contract is a way to defer when a player is paid and minimize risk. In the case of the Oilers, it makes no sense to pay less now so they can pay more later, and in the case of Nugent-Hopkins the risk is minimal - this wasn't a late pick surprising, this is a guy with a track record of performance that made him first in his draft class and got him into the NHL at 18, and then saw him produce in the world's toughest league at an age when many future stars are still back in junior.

This is a good player to bet on. The money is a little steeper right now than it would be in a perfect world, but this has the potential to be a bargain contract relative to performance very soon. Given that Nugent-Hopkins has a year left on his entry-level contract, this new pact might turn out to be fair value from day one. By the end of this deal, the terms should be excellent value for the team.

Nail Yakupov's contract is now a fait accompli, meaning the Oilers will have four forwards at the cost of $24 million. Some will lump Justin Schultz in with that group; he may or may not get the same deal but he hasn't earned it today - with one year left on his entry-level contract, 2013-14 is shaping up to be a very big year for Schultz.

I think I speak for almost everyone when I say that the timing of this is a little weird. No, not that it was announced in the middle of training camp just over two weeks from opening night, but because of the state of the team. Kevin Cheveldayoff has been in control of the Winnipeg Jets for just over two years now. Admittedly, they have been two very peculiar years, but he has had two years nonetheless, and little has truly changed in this team's overall standing. Yet, despite there still being three seasons remaining on his contract, TNSE has decided that his moves to this point have been sufficient enough to warrant an extension?

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Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

Has this kind of contract negotiating been done before? Similar dollars and term? That team koolaid that is being passed out must be the sh!t. If Yak signs for 6 mil long term as well, we could have this core here until almost 2020! And having them spaced out by a few years gives room for manuevering later on.

Hopefully he gets to celebrate by wearing his favorite Batman pj's and an extra helping of milk and cookies before bed! Heck, while you're at it, you might as well let the little guy stay up to watch Big Brother.

Speaking of Sportsnet, I hope they trash that picture in picture of the player leaving the penalty box. It covered up Marincin leaving the box and I'm still wondering why he didn't have a clear cut breakwawy.

I am amazed at how everyone on the TSN comment box is slamming this signing.

It's not very surprising, the TSN comment sections have some of the least intelligent people I have ever seen! Oiler fans who have seen Nuge in every game over the past 2 years know that this is a great contract.

I'd rather have RNH, Hall and Eberle for $18M rather than Perry and Getzlaf for $17M.

The cap is a very real impediment on GM actions. But like a sonnet or a haiku, imposed structure can breed creativity.

EDM isn't in any trouble with the cap going forward. Having really good high paid players is what every team wants. Yes, it means you have to be careful with the pursestrings wherever you can, but it is hardly a death sentence.

Today's signing means two things: this team is committed to winning with this core it paid so dearly to acquire and the GM is going to have to be creative down the road to fill out the roster.

Welcome to the big boy pants part of the world. It's good to be here. This is a great day.

The cap will be closer to 70 million.The HRR is going come from the increase in TV revenue from the new contracts that the NHL will be signing with NBC and fro HNIC. The HNIC contract will be massive. The bidding will be most likely begin at the 200 million dollar a year mark. The HNIC contract with CBC currently has an exclusivity clause. It may be more open moving forward. But if it isn't you can guarantee that whoever wins the bid will pay bigtime to the NHL for that exclusivity. The CBC's biggest money AD maker comes from HNIC. To give that up would be crushing. Either way the league wins and the players win and the salary cap goes up.

Yak gets 40 goals and this whole 6x7 goes out the window and we'll be looking at probably 5x 7. DD will not get more than 4.5 on any of his contracts even if wins a CUP. Not going to happen. Ever.Teams have learned from the Roberto Luongo deal and the Depietro and Bryzgalov deal where their money needs to be spent.

I agree the Penguins are in a similar situation and Shero has been very adept at filling out his roster with low priced options.

But remember he had to move Jordan Staal to make things work.

Also worth noting that Hopkins is NOT Crosby. Hall is NOT Malkin and Eberle is NOT James Neal.

But even with those players on board, the Penguins have not a won a cup since 2008/09 and haven't made it back to the finals since then.

I think you could make a pretty strong argument that the reason for that is that their support players are not good enough and Pittsburgh doesn't have the cap space to do anything about that.

A better comparable would be the Blackhawks who have their top players all below the Kane/Toews $6.3M contracts and an excellent group of young forwards playing on ELC's.

Even then, the Hawks are going to hit a cap crunch in the 2014/15 season when they have almost $60M committed to only 14 players.

Shero didn't move Jordan Staal to make things work. He offered 6M for 6 years to Jordan but Jordan turned it down.

If Shero signed Jordan Staal, he probably won't be able to sign Neal.

Bottom line is, most cap spending team spends about 80% on their top 6 forward, top 4 defense and starting goalie.

Not just the Pens and the Hawks, you can look at the Wilds, Hurricanes, NYR, Flyers, etc. If about a dozen of cap spending team can do it and several of them have won a SC, why do we think it will be a problem only for the Oilers?

I agree Hall, Eberle and RNH are not Crosby and Malkin, but any one of them will be at least as good if not better than Neal.

This contract and the Schultz/Yakupov deals to follow pretty much signifies the Oilers window to win a cup will be very soon and very short.

If Schultz gets, say, $5M and Yakupov gets $6M (both very likely IMO), Petry gets $3.5M and Dubnyk gets $4M, the Oilers will need to have many players on ELC's just to get under the cap in 2015/16.

If those numbers above are close to accurate, the Oilers will have about $55M committed to the cap with only 12 players under contract.

If James Mirtle's salary cap projections for 2015/16 are accurate, the cap will be around $66M.

That means the Oilers will only have $11M to sign another 11 players.

That dog won't hunt.

Oilers will be stacked long term and can trade anyone at anytime to ease cap issues. Imagine Sedins at 8 each plus Loseongo and its the same story but you will think its great cause you hate the Oilers! Sedins cant win in the playoffs as they are pussies and your #1 goalie was in playoff mode last night. I hope it feels good getting us fired up as that's all your good for around here as the Canucks and WILD FA signings are a JOKE compared to the team being built here ....